AT&T has categorically denied having done a deal with the RIAA over online music piracy, refuting claims that they are acting as a proxy for the music industry. {ad}

The Internet service provider was reacting to claims that they were in league with the RIAA, after subscribers received copyright infringement notices that had been forwarded on behalf of the RIAA by AT&T. AT&T admitted that it has been putting copyright holders in touch with subscribers in the case of alleged cases of piracy, but insisted that they would not disconnect users for failing to reply to such correspondence.

We will never suspend, terminate or sanction any customer without some sort of legal process, like a court order. That’s been our policy for years, and that’s not going to change.

The RIAA recently announced a change in policy; a move away from litigation against individual file sharers and towards working with top-tier ISPs to stamp out piracy. This approach doesn’t appear to be going well, with most ISPs not wishing to alienate users by becoming embroiled in what they see as a matter between IP-holders and individual subscribers. The message from ISPs such as AT&T seems to be: “We’re just the pipe”.